Swim Season Is 4 Days Away...

Just out of Water Polo and into swimming again. The Water Polo team I was competing with finished 1st in the year end tournament in Kamloops BC. It was very fun, we played teams from Vancouver Island and Calgary (Calgary had 2 seperate teams). We played the second game of the tournament againt the Calgary Torpedoes they were a tough team but not nearly as tough as the Calgary Wild. We won the games against the Torpedoes both times. After that game we had a one game break then we played the team from Vancouver Island: Sanich Water Polo School, If we win this we are in the Gold Medal Game. We beat them easily. "We are in" my coach said and then we went back to the hotel for the night. Sunday: Our game is at 2:00 PM We are playing Calgary Wild (they have 2 TEAM CANADA!!! players.) everyone thinks we are going to lose but we don't we beat them by 11-9 I think. That tied up the year pretty well I thought. Now something more recent my swim season.

This summer I am in Divison 4. I get to swim 200m IM,100m Breaststroke (not happy about that one...) and 100m Backstroke. In the SFU swim camp I talked about in my last entry I was able to do 3 winter competitions and swam all of those events and more like 100m Butterfly, 200m Freestyle etc. I loved swimming all the events but Breaststroke events. Why?, Because I HATE Breaststroke so much I would rather swim 1500m BUTTERFLY! Anyways this year will be harder for me at Provincials because their are 14 year olds who's birthday is before April 30th I think. So I will be racing people a year older than me. Fun right?

Hope you enjoy this post,
N

It's a new year...

After a successful season we enjoyed a short family vacation, back into the pool.


I was accepted into a programme up at SFU called the Olympic Prospect camp. It started September 15th 2010. We workout 2 times a week: Tuesday and Thursday from 615PM-730PM.

There are very experienced coaches, Dylan and Liam.

The workout starts with dry land training for 15mins, next we get in the water and crank it up. The workouts are not nearly as intense as they were in the summer but very technical.The coaches are showing us new ways to do drills that will make us faster swimmers. This season we focused on 4 main things: 4 dolphin kicks off your start and turns, perfect break-outs off your starts and turns (no breathing for at least 2 strokes), at least 4 kicks per stroke rotation in Freestyle, and lastly how to be crazy fast off the blocks.

I get to compete in 4 swim meets over the winter against winter teams and my next one is this weekend. I have trained very hard over the past few months and have learned alot.

Ummm it's getting late and I'm getting tired and I wish it was summer so I wouldn't have to write this BLOG. All kidding aside I gotta go See ya!
Stay tuned
N

The Big Event...

First of all thank you all for commenting, staying tuned and your general interest.

The last three Provinvials were held in:
1) Trail
2) Abbotsford
3) Kamloops

I cant tell you that I have a favorite because for me this is show time. To be here I paid a price. The main swim season was tough, hell week was a pain, tapering was developing THE NEED FOR SPEED.

My preperation is complete and I'm feeling really nervous. There are people from all over BC who compete in Provincials I think this is how they got the name. They are all great at swimming and are here looking for Provincial GOLD. There are around 800 athletes who compete in this event.

Time for the results:

1) 50m Freestyle I was runnin' to Dairy Queen. The event was really loud and they made us go up and down on the starting blocks 3 times. On the 3rd time i moved before the start (nerves i think). My time qualified first in the province but th DQ made it so i couldn't swim in the final. Bummer.
2) 50m Butterfly ( silver good race).
3) 50m Backstroke (6th bad race).
4) 100m Freestyle Stay tuned.
5) 200 IM relay, 200 Freestyle relay can't tell you the results but they call us the DREAM TEAM.

My main event is the 100m Freestyle. Brent Hayden the current world record holder is a friend of mine and is a huge inspiration to me but my Dad is always my main inspiration.

Yes Mme Miles and fellow classmates I have won Provincial GOLD THREE TIMES in an individual event. 8 times in relays and please enjoy my 100 Freestyle Gold Medal win Video.

Thanks again for staying tuned and i have immensely enjoyed myself with writing these and a very special thanks to Spell Check. I almost forgot, remember how I talked about the 1:02.65 I put up on my wall well my final time was a 1:03.75 just off the Provincial Record.

This is the DREAM TEAM!

PS still working on posting the video.

N

Slowing down... a bit, the big taper.

 I have qualified for the big event. I will be competing in a total of 6 events: 50m Freestyle, 50m Butterfly, 50m Backstroke, 100m Freestyle(the best by far), 200m Freestyle Relay and 200m IM Relay.

The training changes A LOT. We are no longer straining our muscles to get stronger we our training and resting our muscles to get faster. This period of time is called tapering. 

The work outs are the same time but a lot easier. 15x100m's are replaced by 15x25m's. We are now training our  bodies for SPEEEEEED.  There is lots of work on our turns, starts and finishes. There is a thing in swimming that if you take a breath entering or exiting a turn you can lose up to half a second. This is a time of heavy coaching and concentration. 

In these weeks I don't like how there are no hard sets because of tapering, I like working hard more.

As part of getting ready for Provincials we watch motivational videos, set goals for ourselves, play games and have fun.

One goal I set for myself last summer was to swim a 1:02.65 in my 100m Freestyle that would have been a ludicrous time. (I had to use a funny word there). My best time from the summer before was a 1:08.01. I put the new target time on my bedroom wall, bathroom wall and any wall I past from my bedroom to the kitchen. No I didn't put one in the fridge but thats a great idea! Having these great reminders kept me focused on my goal.  I did this because I was after the Provincial Record that was 1:02.91. 

The tapering ended very well. Next stop the big event, hope you all join me for this.

Stay tuned.

N 

Regionals make it or break it...

The swim season is rounding the end but I'm still pumped. I have trained long and hard for this meet.

I swim 6 events in total:
1) 50m Freestyle... I come second.
2) 50m Butterfly... I come first.
3) 50m Backstroke... I come second.
4) 100m Freestyle... I own it.
5) 200m IM relay... we own it.
6) 200m Freestyle relay... we own it.

If you come first, second or third your on your  way to Provincials (this year they were in Kamloops). So as you can see I qualified in 6 events. There are swimmers who go to  Regionals but never Provincials.

I have been lucky and have qualified for Provincials every year I have been swimming.

The Regional meet is fun but nerve racking. In swimming there is something called a DQ it's not a trip to Dairy Queen it's a disqualification. The rules in swimming are specific. As an example. In Breaststroke you must touch the wall at the end of your race with two hands, if you touch with one hand you will go to Dairy Queen. The same rule applies to Butterfly.

This post doesn't have room for all the rules in swimming but those are a few of them for you guys.

The meet was all in all success for me and I'm on my way to Provincials...

At the beginning of the meet I was not nervous that I would not make Provincials. Let me tell you it's not easy to stay back when the starter says "Take your marks" cause if you move before the start your runnin' back to Dairy Queen.

In general I felt really good with my swimming at the meet given that i was very sick 2 days before the meet. I had to go to the doctor and they gave me medication to fix me up.

Swimming sick isn't easy but I didn't take my eyes off the PROVINCIAL GOLD...
N

This was my first buzz of the year. It says FAST

Hell Week stepping stone to Provincial GOLD.

Hell Week starts on a Monday, 6:00 AM precisely. Coach takes us aside and says "This will be our toughest week of training yet so far this year". And it begins...

The training is intense like you cannot imagine. This is no 17.5 hours a week this is 40 hours in one week. The week starts off with 2 hours of swimming in the morning. Day 1 is based on butterfly, lots of stroke correction, drills, streamlines, turns and starts. The kick in butterfly is super important; it's called a dolphin kick. Dolphin kick is very critical in every stroke. The dolphin kick is exactly like it sounds, you move your hips and feet in a syncronized fashion just like you see a dolphin on tv.

Between 9 and 3 PM we watch films on swimming and motivation, we play games designed to strenghthen our core and improve our stamina. We also eat and rest during this time. 4 PM we are back in the water again.

Tuesday  same routine but backstoke.
Wednesday same routine but breaststroke.
Thursday same routine but freestyle.(15x100's might happen here).
Friday is special olympics, I know what you guys are thinking here but it's not like that.
We form 6 teams 8 people on each team. Every team is named after a colour, last year I was team black.
After morning work out we have our activities, they can be as crazy as climbing the Grind, playing beach volleyball, scavenger hunting or driving go carts. All in all it's a fun time.

Surprise surprise 4 PM Friday night we are back in the water crankin' it up. Another 2.5 hour work out.

This week is one of the greatest and worst weeks of my summer. With it I improve, with out it I crash and burn.

Swimming is not for everyone, it's lonely, intense, requires huge discipline but the positives way out weigh the negatives.

I love it. Next stop Regionals, if you don't swim here you cannot compete at Provincials.
Stay tuned,THE GAMES ARE JUST BEGINNING...

This is a group of us getting ready to go up the Grind during Hell Week.
N

What it takes to win a provicial GOLD.

You can tell by the title of my blog, I am really into swimming. The season starts May 15 I train 9 hours a week before and  after school at the North Shore Winter Club. Training consists of dryland for 30 minutes before we get in the pool. Dryland is stretching, running sprints, strength training and ends in a game.

In the pool we swim of course, the work out starts with a warm up of 300m of swimming/kicking. Next is the heart of the work out. I like the heart of the work out the most. It's like running until you want to up chuck. You might think this is wierd but without pushing the limits you will never improve, kinda like this blog. In a typical work out we swim about 2000m it's stroke drills, spints, breath control and endurance. The work out ends with a warm down of about 200m of swimming. But if you think that's tough, In the middle of the summer I swim 17.5 hours a week. This is when training starts getting tough.

AM work outs start at 6:00. This work out is 1:30 minutes including stretching and cool down. Early in the morning it's very hard to get out of a warm cozy bed and be motivated to go for gold. There is fog coming off the water so you think it's hot but...(ITS FREEZING!).

PM work outs start at 5:30 and go to 8:00. Same stroke improvement, more intense drills and lots of kick with a kickboard, but occasionally we do one of my favorite things which is called 15x100m's. The turn over or pace time is 2mins, my repeat time averages were around 1:10sec. That would leave me with 50sec to recover forn the next 100m.

This gives you a small taste of what my summers are like all in pursuit of Provincial GOLD.
My finger tips are bruised from typing so see ya later. Next stop HELL WEEK. Bet you can't wait to hear about it...